Disease stalks Merebank kids in the heart of south Durban's industrial area

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Disease stalks Merebank kids in the heart of south Durban's industrial area

Mar 06, 2002 21:01 PST

NATAL MERCURY, DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=14 & art_id=ct20020228211611476W200895

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By Tony Carnie

Primary school children in the heart of south Durban's industrial area

appear to have one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, a team of

university researchers reported on Thursday.

Releasing interim results of a new health study at a briefing at the

University of Natal's Mandela Medical School, the researchers said

there was a " strikingly high " rate of asthma among children at the Settlers

Primary School in Lakhimpur Road, Merebank.

More than half of the 248 pupils and teachers who took part in the study

were reported to be suffering from severe or mild asthma symptoms.

Of these, about 17 percent were believed to be suffering from moderate to

severe asthma, 14 percent had mild but persistent symptoms, and 24 percent

had mild but intermittent symptoms. About 44 percent reported no symptoms at

all.

In comparison to the Settlers school pupils who live in Umlazi, the asthma

rate was also markedly higher among the children who live and study in

Merebank.

The research team said acute cases of asthma appeared to be closely related

to emissions of sulphur dioxide and other air pollutants measured in the

school grounds.

However, the researchers cautioned that the results were only interim

findings and were the outcome of a " relatively inexpensive and fast study " .

The principal author of the report, Professor Tom Robbins of the University

of Michigan in the United States, outlined the study results on Thursday

afternoon to a group of academics, government and city officials, community

groups, industry representatives and parents and teachers from Settlers

School.

The study forms part of a multi-stakeholder industrial pollution study

initiated in September 2000 by environment minister Valli Moosa shortly

after a survey by The Mercury that suggested an unusually high rate of

leukaemia and cancer in Merebank children.

The study is being funded by Engen, Sapref, the Durban Metro health

department, the University of Natal, Technikon Natal and the civic pollution

watchdog body " groundWork " .

The researchers include Robbins and Michigan University colleague Professor

Stuart Battermann; Professor Barry Kistnasamy and fellow researchers of the

University of Natal medical school, and Technikon Natal staff.

At the time of the study last year, levels of sulphur dioxide at the

Settlers School did not exceed local and United States guidelines, but

Battermann said the levels of volatile organic compounds (including benzene,

toluene and trichlorethylene) were higher or equal to the levels found

during a similar study near four-lane highways in the city of Detroit,

Michigan.

Robbins said it was difficult to quantify to what extent asthma was

aggravated by industrial air pollution levels, but there seemed to be no

difference in asthma rates between the children of smokers and non-smokers.

He cautioned that the results were interim findings and that the most

intensive period of the study was restricted to a three-week period in April

and May last year.

He added that it was a " relatively inexpensive and fast study " which did not

include skin allergy tests or